Pop Stop

Unsurprisingly, Jay Chou (周杰倫) is all over the Golden Melody Awards this year, having bagged seven nominations for his album The Era (跨時代).

But other big-name stars didn’t fare as well. Conspicuously absent from this year’s list of nominees for best Mandarin female singer were Chou’s former sweetheart Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) and Tien Fu-chen (田馥甄), aka Hebe Tien of the girl band S.H.E.

Tien’s omission from the category has been particularly controversial among fans, who are seething after a Golden Melody Award judge reportedly said that she wasn’t nominated for the best singer category because she relied too much on technology to shore up her vocals.

Tien responded mildly at a press conference, according to the China Times, saying that she accepted the judges’ decisions.

But she also defended herself, saying that “Everyone uses computers to polish their music,” and also quipped, “I’m not sure about the judges’ tastes.”

Though she’s not in the running for one of the Golden Melody’s most coveted awards, her album, To Hebe, did pick up four other nominations, including best album and best music video.